Monday, December 24, 2007

NASCAR Christmas




Twas the night before Christmas and all through the hauler, Tony Stewart's belt size just wasn't getting smaller.



The season had ended, the champion crowned, and the last lap at Homestead left not a frown.

Carl Edwards was resting in Amanda Beard's bed, while visions of back flips popped in his head.



Mike Helton was sleeping and so was Brian France. With all these rules changing, they'd better put a cup in their pants!



When out on the track I heard an engine start, so I sprang from the garage to see Kurt Busch depart.



Away from the track he drove in a flash, with a Maricopa County Sheriff hot on his, um, butt.



The moon shone bright on the newly re-paved track, and it looked like Kurt might never be back.



When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a black and red sleigh, not powered by reindeer!



An unknown driver appeared with a swagger, and in the light I could see, it was The Intimidator!



More than that he stepped onto pit lane, and proceeded to call out other drivers by name.



"Now Rusty, now Terry, now Ricky and Mark, listen to what I have to say in the dark!"



"To the front of the field then on to Victory Lane, you guys are all legends, the sport won't be the same!"



Dale's message was clear as he hopped in his sleigh, and flew off to heaven, as night turned to day.



Before he left, to the retired he'd shout, "Win one for me, before you bow out!"

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Snow day

There was a nasty snow storm here in Iowa last night. Lots of blowing snow.

When I went to leave for work this morning it was still a mess. Lots of blowing snow causing drifts all over. I dug out behind the car and was able to get out the driveway on the first shot. Only one problem, no one had plowed the side streets. I got up to the corner and couldn't go any farther. The car just kept sliding backwards.

So, today is a snow day.

I've tried a couple times to get out, but no go. They still haven't plowed my street. And every time I get the driveway cleared and come inside to warm up, it fills up again. At least the sun has finally come out and the wind is starting to die down. (lol I typed out dye first )

I've been cleaning the kitchen and playing games on the pc. The kid is stuck at my folk's house. I almost stopped there last night instead of pushing on home. I could barely see the road at all and drove about 20 mph home.

Mr. Mousie hasn't gone away. I do believe I heard the little shit this morning when I was throwing something in the trash. I had hoped that the stink that is out in the kitchen was the dead mouse. Nope. Little shit left some lovely droppings on the one counter too. Yuck.

Ok, off to go fold towels and run some more wash. Hope all of y'all in the mid-west stay safe and warm.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

My pc REALLY hates me

gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I have 3 hard drives. One of them is configured with XP to run on this motherboard. The other 2 are configured with a setup that no longer exists. I had been using one of those hard drives as a storage device on here. A couple weeks ago my pc started acting up and I could no longer see that drive.

Soooo I started messing around with the pc trying to get it to work. Yesterday one of my IDE cables fell apart. So I went and bought 2 new ones. One of those has now fallen apart. *DOH*

I've ripped my pc apart more times than I can count today. As it stand, I have one hard drive hooked up now. I can not get it to start if I have either of the other 2 drives hooked up. And yes, I have the main drive set up as the master. The other two are set up as slaves.

I sooo am not in a good mood right now.

I'm going to look into how to turn a hard drive into an external drive. I know there are setups that you can buy for that. Still a huge pita. If they are too expensive I'm going to have to kidnap the brother and make him actually come to my house and set up the damn thing with the 3 drives inside. It's been at least 5 years since lil bro has been in my house. He is a butt.

Anyways, I need to go search for the info I need. Then I have to get dressed and go to a Christmas party. Oh joy!! NOT!! I want my damn graphic files back. :O(

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

my pc hates me

I figured out why my other hard drive wasn't being seen.

The data cable was coming apart. When I tried to mess with it, it pulled right out. Sooooo I am gonna head to Staples and hope they have some. I'm gonna get 2 of them cause right now I only have one that works and it is as old as the other one.

Frod needs her pc. A pcless Frod is not a good thing.

That is all. Continue as you were.

ETA: For future reference, if you live in the Dubuqueland area, do not go to Staples or Best Buy looking for IDE cables (yeah that is what those data cable/ribbons thingies are called). They may sell hard drives and other drives but they don't sell the cables to connect them. I got mine at Radio Shack. Picked up a package of DVD-Rs so I can back up all my shit too. lol

Tis the season

... for me to feel like an ungrateful grinchy brat. *sigh*

A couple months ago, my dad helped me clean out a bunch of junk in my garage. He decided to haul away my very old Christmas tree. It was a total pain in the ass to put together. It usually took me well over a half hour cause I had to insert every single branch and it was huge. He told me he had a better tree that would be easier to put up. Well I hated the old tree so I said sure.

I put up the new tree today.

And I hate it.

It is so small and puny that it is ugly. There are only 3 pieces to it so it only took about 2 minutes to put together. But the branches are sparse and very short. I can see right through it. :(

Yes it was very cool to be able to put the tree up by myself and not end up with a huge backache. Sure it takes up a lot less room.

But I hate it. sniffle

If I tell my folks, they will get pissed. I'm not sure why they bought it in the first place. I think they had it up in their basement but I never paid attention to it.

I'm just so used to the huge tree that took up almost half of my living room. It totally blocked the windows on the back wall and you had to lean a little in the chair in order to watch tv. This one barely fills the corner of the room. I have no troubles getting to the window and I know the chair won't hit it when it gets reclined like the old one.

It just feels like a big part of what made up my Christmas is gone. And I can't afford to get a new tree and lord knows I don't want to hear my folks bitch about my being ungrateful.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Oh my aching checkbook

Sarah's Yarns is going to be increasing the price of their Jaggerspun yarns. The manufacturer is going to be charging them more, so they have to charge us more. The increases take effect Monday. Sooooooooo I ordered two cones of yarn. lol I got a cone of Mainline 2/8 in Claret and Mainline 2/20 in Admiral. I also got a free color card and to get free shipping, I ordered a White Lies pattern. I forget just which one at the moment. It's a shell top. Not one of the real flouncy ones. I really lover their designs but I can do without the flared sleeves that most of them have. I suppose I could just figure out how to do them straighter, but well I'm lazy. :OP

Ok, I need to hit the sack. It was a long day and there are two to go yet.

Cross your fingers that my lil mousie guest will get himself dead tonight. I hate mice. *grumble*

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Winter sucks

More ice storms hitting Iowa. The ice in the driveway is 2 inches thick. Thankfully Dad is going to finish clearing it for me. Cause I get to go to work today. Oh joy. I had not planned on going to work today but I got a call from Dad that Mom wants me there. *sigh*

When I went to go to work yesterday my car was totally encased in ice. Umm I didn't think to try and clear the car the day before. I had only tried to clear the ice in the driveway with no success. In my efforts to clear the car off, I fell on my ass. My right arm is bruised up and I've got a nasty scrape on my wrist. it's now infected too. Poured some peroxide on it earlier and damn near bit my tongue it hurt so bad. I've got to figure out a way to keep my work gloves from rubbing on it or it is going to be sore as hell by Sunday night. I'm having troubles getting bandages to stick.

I knit the kid another hat the other day. It's of course not what my folks think is right for him. Doesn't fit just right. Isn't the right color. *sigh* Let's see my mom knit him a damn hat. Oh that's right, she doesn't know how to knit or even crochet.

Garh I'm just feeling grumbly right now. I didn't sleep well last night at woke up at 5:30. I had hoped to take a small nap before my dad came over to shovel, but instead I have to go take a shower and go to work. Then it will be time to go get the kid and then go to the store. I need to get some traps or poison for the kitchen. I have a mouse in the house. Saw it last night running in front of the bathroom door. Which is no where near the dang kitchen which is where I thought the lil shit was confining itself cause that is where the food is. I hate mice.

Monday, December 03, 2007

FO

I've been knitting. I present Nick's Fake Isle Hat. :)


It's not perfect, but I like it. I saved off this pattern quite a while ago. It's been a long time since I've made a hat though. When the kid got ready for school on Wednesday we realized he had a hole in his hat. So I cast on for this one. I didn't work on it at all this weekend thanks to work. So really it only took me about 2 days of knitting off and on. Not too bad for me. hehe

Blame it on Ravelry

Yes, I've been sucked in. It's all Laurie's fault. I wasn't going to even sign up for it knowing it would suck up all my time. I was right.

I've been busy with other things too though.

I worked Tuesday and that always kicks my butt. Wednesday I actually went to the fiber guild meeting!! It was so fun to actually watch people knitting. There were 3 people there with spinning wheels. One lady was spinning her dogs hair. hehe It looked like wool though. I would have never guessed it was dog hair. 2 ladies were doing needlepoint. Very nice stuff. Nick managed to behave himself for the most part. We ended up staying 2 hours. I do believe next time I'm going to have Mom watch him so he doesn't end up staying up so late. It is the day after Christmas but still. He just doesn't deal well with staying up so late.

Thursday was the kid's winter program. I met up with Mom and Dad for the kindergarten, first and second grade's program. All the kids did a great job. They did a few other holiday type songs but none were specifically Christmas. I ran into one of my cousins and he of course ran as soon as I said hi to him. He is just an ass. It wasn't like I planted myself in front of him and started yammering on. He just happened to be there when I turned around to go find the kid and said hi and how are ya and he bolted. But who cares. As I said, he is an ass. Nick insisted that we stay for the 3rd, 4th adn 5th grader's program. My folks hit the road, but I'm glad Nick and I stayed. The older kids program was hilarious. They had some really funny songs. As soon as they brought the lights up at the end, we bolted. We were the first people out of the parking lot. hehe I hate crowds and trying to get out of an event.

Here is a picture of the new haircut. I hate this picture but it was the best that I could do. It's hard to take a picture of yourself. My face just looks huge in this picture. bleck Not to mention my nose looks huge. lol Oh well.
Ok, I need to go try and break up the ice in the driveway. It's horrid. There is over an inch of it. When I parked the car in the driveway last night, it didn't even dent the snow and ice. I poured a whole dang bag of salt on the driveway so hopefully most of the ice will break up. Oh such fun.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Update

Ok, so my brother is a typical male. He only hears what he wants to hear.

He totally does not remember the conversation we had about getting a gift certificate for garden thins for the folks. He honestly thought we were only getting them a dinner out.

Ummmmm yeah....

He and his wife both have really good paying jobs. They own a house and multiple vehicles. They have no kids but 2 dogs.

I am a single mom with no help from my son's father. I do make an ok amount of money but not enough to buy a house. I own one vehicle that I'm still paying my folks for.

And I am supposed to be the one paying for my parents present from both of us???? Yeah, I don't think so.

I do believe he is going to go off and get them a gift certificate for either Lowes or Menards. At least he better. If he can go buy himself a 32 inch flat screen tv when they already have 3 tvs that work just fine and dandy, I think he can afford to spend some money on our folks. Especially when you think about the fact that I'm the one that had my tv die on me and I replaced it with an old console tv that my folks got out of the garbage. *sigh*

gobble gobble

Hope y'all in America had a great Thanksgiving day. I hope it was spent with family and friends that you actually enjoy spending time with. hehe

Ours wasn't too bad. Watching the 3 dogs going nuts playing was quite fun. I managed to finish 2 rows of the Galveston shawl. It is soooo slow going. For some reason my needles kept pulling out of the stitches. Thankfully I'm pretty good at picking stitches back up in lace. Lord knows I've had enough practice. hehe

The kid of course pretty much refused to eat. All attention had to be on him as he sighed and groaned each time I told him to take a bite. In the end he ate a bit of mashed potatoes and corn. He had one little bite of turkey. He wouldn't touch the stuffing or the green beans. We did manage to keep from having the whole thing turn into a yelling and screaming match.

I gave my folk their anniversary gift early. Their anniversary isn't until Monday, but I gave them a dinner at a nice restaurant in town. I didn't want my mom to have to cook her own dinner that night. Of course that still couldn't be without controversy. About a month ago, I called my bro and asked him what we should do for their anniversary this year since it is their 30th. We agreed on dinner and a gift certificate for a nursery or something. I told my bro that I would take care of the dinner reservations and such since he is 2 hrs away and he could take care of the other. So a week later I called him and told him where I found for them to eat and said I would take care of that part. I didn't ask him what he had come up with. Well anyway, last night late, I get an email from my mom that bro had told her that the dinner was supposed to be from both of us. He and his wife forgot their card at home and I still have no clue what their part of the gift is. I just put mine and Nick's name on the dinner because I told bro that I would take care of that part and he had his part. So now I look like the ass. When I'm the one that came up with the idea. I'm the one that found the restaurant. I'm the one that put the money in the card. And so far as I've seen bro hasn't done shit. grrrrrrr

Add to that, I called to talk to Mom this morning but she was out shopping. I talked to Dad and told him about the whole deal. And he COMPLAINED that the restaurant was too far away. ggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Excuse me for picking a nice restaurant on the river instead of picking the crappy family restaurant in the next town over. Hell at least dinner would have been half as much there. *sigh* Nothing is ever good enough for that man. Especially if it comes from me.

And it doesn't help that I was up half the night. Well most of the night. I read Mom's email right before I went to bed and my stomach decided it was not time to go to bed. It got nasty around 1am. I hate dry heaves. I slept in until 9, but I didn't go to sleep until after 3:30. I could so easily just go back to sleep right now but my tummy is still not happy. *sigh* I may have to risk it though cause I can't concentrate on anything anyways.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

bleck

I'm not having a very good night. I'm really feeling out of sorts.

All day I've sort of felt tired and not really motivated. I spent the day mostly sitting here at my desk. I've been alternating between reading mail, blogs and ravelry. I've done a bit of knitting on a christmas project.

But about a half hour a go it just hit me that I wasted the whole damn day. I had intended to run to the bank and the store. I need to make reservations for my folk's anniversary dinner. I need to get the wash finished.

But instead, I sat here. Not really getting anything done.

And now my stomach is acting up and I'm on the verge of tears. I feel like I just keep letting life just slip on by. I don't feel like I'm really living half the time.

I need a snooze.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Pictures!!

Wow that took awhile to upload!! Didn't realize I took so many pictures.

First we have the finished first clue of the Halloween Mystery shawl aka Dracula's Bride.


And some close ups.


And here is the Knit Picks Gossamer that I got in the mail the other day.
Isn't it pretty??

And here finally is the Purewool that I got a couple weeks ago.

First up the colorway called Nuts. What I ordered is on the right. What I got is on the left.

I am not happy with the color variance at all. I've got a dye kit coming and I do believe I'll overdye it with some brown and see what I get.

This is Columbia and it is right on the money.

The Lace Blue is pretty too.

And lastly Firebrick. Yummmm!! This is what I was originally going to use for the Halloween shawl. I'll find something else for it laters.

And now for the goodies from Huacaya Moon.

The Moss Kid Seta. It is soooo soft.

The two books I picked up.


Here is the spindle that I picked up awhile ago. I haven't sat and played with it again yet. The roving is much more red than it looks here.


Some RubySaphire sock yarn I picked up a few months ago and never blogged about. It's called Brayden.

A skein of yarn from Perchance to Knit in the Harlot's Peacock or Midnight Rainbow colorway. I swear there is some color in there. It isn't just black. hehe It smells sooo good and is soft and yummy.

And here is the yarn I got for scarves for the family.

Just your basic Red Heart Symphony.
The pattern I'm using is super easy. Cast on a multiple of 4 + 1. Every row is *Knit 3, Purl 1* to the last stitch, Knit 1. You end up with a really nice wide rib. You get a garter ridge, knit ridge, garter ridge, purl ridge pattern across.

I picked up this duffel bag kit at Wal-Mart the other day when I got the scarf yarn. Man I love Wal-Mart clearance racks. lol

And here are my just because prizes from the Secret of the stole.

A really cool needle pouch from Lantern Moon.

A set of stitch markers from The Knit Stitchery.
And a tape measure from Lantern Moon.
There was also a 10% discount card from One Planet Yarn & Fiber. I can't wait to pick something out.

Ok now I really must stop trying to type. I've had a bit to drink tonight and omg my face is getting fuzzy feeling. hehehe *Drunk blogger alert!!* lol

Monday, November 12, 2007

I am a dork

Man life gets away from me sometimes.

Ok where to try and catch up. The tummy troubles continue. I think I know what part of the stress is coming from. It's a bit of a sore subject for me. Suffice it to say there is someone I care about that is involved with someone else. No I'm not having an affair, physically or emotionally. I just have to let go of things and let them be what they will.

After much whining and psycho fits on my part, I did in fact head downtown to attend the fiber guild meeting. Mom had to talk me into it. I just completely panicked and did not want to go. I got down there and I guess there was some sort of mix up with the key for the hall. Everyone stood outside for about 20 minutes and left. I played stalker and sat in the car trying to get up the nerve to talk to them. lol When they left I went home.

Skip ahead to this past Friday. I took the day off work because Nick had off from school. On a whim I called the owner of Huacaya Moon to see if she would be open that night. Turns out she was on her way in. The shop is mostly only open Fridays and Saturdays and only when she isn't on the road for shows. It was a damn dark night to be driving out into the wilds of Iowa. The stretch of road from Dubuque down to Bellevue is not heavily populated or traveled and the brights on my car are not working right now. Nancy turned out to be a total doll though. She has lots of yummy yarns and spinning fibers. She is a big time spinner too. I picked up a couple books and 2 skeins of yarn. It's Madil Kid Seta in a really lovely shade of moss green (#470). I promise to take pics tomorrow. It's 70% Super Kid Mohair and 30% Seta/Silk. Sooo soft and fuzzy. I'm thinking either a smoke ring or some sort of head scarf for lil ole me. One of the books is a "How To" for spindle spinning. Nancy has also offered to help me get started learning.

I've also got a bunch of other new stuff here. I got a Just Because prize from the Secret of the Stole. Lots of cute little stuff that I'll detail tomorrow. I got some yarn and needles from Knit Picks too. 5 skeins of Gossamer in the Blue Jeans colorway. I got 4 more sets of needle tips and 3 or 4 more sets of cables. I just love the Options needles. Plus now that my Addi dealer is off of eBay it's much too expensive to keep buying those.

I finally finished the first clue of the Halloween Mystery shawl, Dracula's Bride. (pictures tomorrow) I've finished another couple rows of the Galveston shawl. I've got about 5 1/2 rows to go in total before the edge. I got some cheapy yarn from Wal-Mart and I'm working on some scarves for Mom and my sil. It they don't get done, no biggie. I am not planning any other Christmas knitting save for one mystery project.

I can't think of anything else to share at the moment. I think I'll go knit for a bit.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Yawn

I had another bad night last night. I actually hurt my throat during the mess. Everything swelled up inside and it felt like I was choking. I'm starting to think the tummy troubles and lack of sleep are all in my head. Someday I'm going to make a therapist very very rich when he/she writes a book about my nutso self. lmao I think I'm going to dig out my sleeping pills and start taking them at about 8pm and forcing myself to go to bed no later than 10pm.

I worked at the kitchen today. I only went in an extra half hour more than usual but I swear it feels like I worked 10 hours. I did manage to get 5 hours of sleep last night so that is only part of it. I only actually washed dishes for maybe an hour and a half. The rest of the time I was helping in the kitchen. Spraying off the dishes was not fun since the food kept making me want to upchuck. hehe With the swelling in my throat I already was feeling like I was half ready to puke. Add in peoples mushed up messy left overs.

I got my partner's name for secret Santa at work today. Let's just say I'm not terribly fond of the woman that I got. I have no clue what to buy her but I do know, I'm not making her shit. I have no clue what to put up on the list for suggestions for myself. I know I'm going to put down that I don't want jewelry of any kind. I can't wear pierced earrings anymore. The holes have closed up on my left ear and trying to put in an earring is very painful. Think I'll put down anything to do with wolves or sci-fi books. Not going to ask for a gift certificate to a craft store cause frankly Hobby Lobby and Michael's just don't do it for me. Although I do like the bead section at Michael's. I need to visit Beads and Beyond again soon though. hehe

Also got some good news from Mom today. She is going to watch Nick tomorrow night so I can attend the fiber guild meeting. :O) She is going to come over here. Which sort of sucks cause it means I have to clean all day tomorrow. hehe But I actually get to get out of the house on my own and spend time with other adults that love fibre as much as I do. I'm going to take a long a couple of my finished shawls. I'll take along the Halloween shawl and the Galveston shawl to work on. I'm hoping to have the first clue of the Halloween shawl done before I go tomorrow and I'll post some pictures. I'm kind of nervous about going to the meeting but I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully I won't get some pushy woman telling me I knit all wrong and have her taking my needles away to show me how wrong I am. hehe I know I don't knit in the conventional way, but I had to learn from a cd-rom. Plus the cd showed the woman knitting with the yarn in her right hand and until last year I just couldn't get the hang of that. I hold the yarn in my left hand the way I do for crocheting.

Ok, I'm gonna go browse on Ravelry some. See if I can't find another long thread I can get lost again in. I keep finding big fights that just suck me in. I've only posted a couple times and so far no one has responded to me, but I don't mind. It's sort of how I roll on Yahoo groups too. hehe I'm Froddopsycho on there btw. Just in case anyone was wondering and wants to friend me. :OP

Thursday, October 25, 2007

soooo tired

OMG I have never ever been this tired.

I woke up Wednesday at about 3am. I next actually fell asleep sometime this morning around 5:30am. Woke up once sometime before 6 to use the potty and fell back to sleep until the alarm went off at 6:45.

I've been awake since. . . . . . . . barely!!

I am so close to falling asleep right here and now.

I do believe I'm gonna go see if the brat has eaten his dang banana and then take a short snooze.

groan

I am not having a good night.

I can't sleep. My stomach aches. I've thrown up once but it didn't help. There is nothing to throw up left, but my stomach still insist on doing somersaults.

Sitting at my desk I can feel all tired and ready to sleep. Even through the constant ache.

The moment I climb into bed, I'm wide awake. I'm not laying there thinking about anything in particular that is upsetting me. I am just no longer sleepy and my stomach goes into over drive.

So I get up and head for the bathroom. I'm rereading Bag of Bones. It's been so long since I've read it that I don't remember the story.

Then it is back to the bed to try again. No go.

And now I've given up. I have to be up in 3 hours anyway. I didn't have a nap today, but I'll have to lay down later after the kid is in school. I can't let myself sleep too long though or I won't sleep tomorrow night. That would not be good as I have to work Friday. And I'm gonna be kind of on my own for the first 2 or 3 hours. TJ is coming in late so he can milk cows. Granted, the regular work week folks will be there, but I don't really work with them.

ugghhhh I need to visit the lil girls room again. :(

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Photo heavy post

Here are the pictures that I promised y'all of the kid.



Isn't he scary??



Here are some of the animals from the petting zoo.



The kid loved the goose and the bunny.





Here are the lil goats that I thought looked like lil sheep.



They stayed bunched up the whole time. And those lil bits of fluff on the left are actually some sort of chicken.



The kid was excited after making it through the hay maze.





He is such a lil ham!



And a couple pics of the parents new dog Toots. She just had a bath before these pics. She is impossible to catch still. hehe



Ok, I'm off to play on Ravelry a lil bit more while I knit on the halloween shawl.